Questionable Questing

Borges said it quite well; he once said that if you didn't like a book, no matter how much it was recommended to you, don't read it, read things you liked instead; it's the same with painting.

I only know Borges through this quote I came across and saved to my phone

I am not sure that I exist, actually. I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met, all the women that I have loved; all the cities I have visited

That phrase Borges said is undoubtedly beautiful; another phrase I liked is how he says that literature is nothing other than a directed dream.

Or another thing I remember was when he said that Tolkien was tedious to him and called Lord of the Rings The Brotherhood of the Rings, as if he had forgotten the name of the book.

Ooh that's a dig. I actually enjoyed Tolkien.

I got to get ready to start dinner, and tonight is family game night so I won't be responding for the rest of the night

Don't worry, it was good to talk about Borges. I think he said that dressing up as an elf like Tolkien did seemed a bit strange to him too, though not in a good way.

>Or another thing I remember was when he said that Tolkien was tedious to him and called Lord of the Rings The Brotherhood of the Rings, as if he had forgotten the name of the book.

Was there a translation somewhere in there? Because this sounds like it might refer to The Fellowship of the Ring, the first book of LotR.

No he read it and found it as Tolkien carries on and on. He literally states that he found it boring. He corrected himself a few seconds later to Lordship of the ring and then carried on.

Hi magic9mushroomI didn't take things out of context. The interview is in English and available in full on YouTube. Borges was asked what he thought of Lord of the Rings. He said, intentionally or not, that he called the book Brotherhood of the Rings and that he found the book tedious, that when he first read it it made him laugh, and worse, that he felt he gained nothing from reading it.

Also, if you research Borges, you'll find out that he saw things like dressing up as an elf, as Tolkien did, as things he wouldn't repeat; he didn't see them as appropriate.

How do you dress up as an elf? I mean, aren't they basically just humans with pointy ears?

It should be clarified that Borges wasn't insulting Tolkien. He always said, when asked about an author or a book, that what he said was his opinion. He said that if you liked a book, it didn't matter if you were famous or not, as long as you read it. He simply didn't like Tolkien's book and didn't agree with his lifestyle, but it wasn't hatred.

Well, you know, there are people who like that pointy ear thing. If you look closely, many animated series, like Disney and similar ones, have them. And it's said that Tolkien dressed up as an elf and similar things in several of his lectures. And again, Borges believed that Tolkien had the right to do that; he simply felt it wasn't appropriate and wasn't something he would do.

I mean you're not wrong that's basically what it boils down to. Personally I really like the Gothic and Victorian looks and that's considered weird nowadays and Elf ears are more normal. Hell I saw a pair of Bluetooth Elf Ears so you could look like an elf and still jam to your music.

I kinda feel like "wearing pointy ears" doesn't really qualify as "dressing up". More "makeup".

(I am a fan of the pointy ears.)

Exactly, there's nothing wrong with pointy ears like elves'. There are many drawings by famous and not-so-famous artists who make their characters with pointy ears, and they look good. That's what Borges tries to say: if you like a style, a type of art, a book, you should just read it and look at it, regardless of whether it's famous or not. The Victorian style is fine too.

Well, it depends on what you mean by "disguising" in various programs. Just putting on glasses and a scarf on your face counts as disguising. The same goes for elf ears; it depends on how you define the word.

Well first off we should clear something up, while the Professor was known to dress up on occasion we have no proof he ever wore costumes to class. Other antics like shouting Beowolfs opening lines yes, costumes no.

Second Tolkien taught from 1920 to 1959 back then most people( atleast here in the US not sure about Britain) didn't really like the eccentric.

Well, perhaps I should have been a little more specific there, since, as I said, it depends on how you define dressing up. What is known is that he dressed extravagantly once with C.S. Lewis. What I understand is that Borges personally, while respecting the right of others to dress as they please, said that he would never dress up or try to look like a fantastical creature, like an elf.